Rhapsody International Inc. and Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc., or "SMEJ," today announced the formal launch of the label's on demand, high resolution streaming music service called "mora qualitas" in Japan. The premier service allows Japanese music fans to have both the convenience of on-demand and the superior quality of high resolution music.
SMEJ launched mora qualitas to bring Japanese subscribers a brand new audio experience. Audiophiles can now stream high resolution music with the depth and richness of what the artist intended. Music will be sourced from multiple labels and distributors, as well as Sony Music Entertainment.
Mora qualitas subscribers can stream FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) files at a standard of 24-bit/96kHz (Hi-Resolution)/ 16-bit/44.1kHz (CD quality) through a variety of hardware devices including Digital Analog Converters from Sony's entire line of Hi-Res audio equipment.
"The world of streaming is accelerating and as great companies like Sony Music Entertainment Japan expand into streaming audio, it's an exciting time for the industry overall," said Brian Ringer, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Asia Pacific Region of Rhapsody. "With the introduction of mora qualitas, music and audio fans in Japan can easily stream their favorite music in high resolution audio."
Japanese music fans can listen to high resolution music from top talent such as Queen, Norah Jones, Steely Dan and Japanese artists like Hikaru Utada, DREAMS COME TRUE and more. Subscribers will be able to access music from Universal Music Japan, Warner Music Japan, Victor Entertainment and more in addition to Sony Music Entertainment Japan's stable of global artists.
Mora qualitas Service Features:
"Sony is taking high resolution sound quality to new heights. We're building on the success of Mora, our original high res download service in Japan, and after six years we're in tune with what our customers want from their streaming audio provider," said Shigeki Tanaka, Senior Vice President of Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc. "We chose Napster as our trusted partner because they have the global music experience, sophisticated API and passion to help us launch Japan's new premier service."
Rhapsody's platform Powered by Napster provides Sony Music Entertainment Japan's "mora qualitas" service with a full suite of technologies and solutions that includes media streaming and download infrastructure, applications, personalization, recommendations, rights management, customer billing and royalty calculation capabilities.
Napster's in a prime position to power the coming wave of high resolution music services and contribute to the growth of the Japanese music industry with its Powered by Napster platform. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI)'s Global Music Report 2019 spotlighted the growth of music revenue in Japan which saw an increase of 3.4% for 2018. The main driver for this, according to the report, is streaming, which measured 32.6% growth over the year. The most significant development in the streaming market was top-level pop acts such as Hikaru Utada and Yumi Matsutoya among others that are making their catalogs available on streaming platforms like mora qualitas.
Music fans in Japan can subscribe to mora qualitas for 1,980 Yen a month / around $18.50 US dollars.
Mora qualitas is available for Windows and Macintosh desktop users, initially, with an Android and iOS mobile app slated to launch soon.
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